“The biggest question I had as a child was, ‘how would I leave my mark on the world?’” – A monument

The Biggest Question

“When I was young we lived in a camp trailer without water or a restroom,” my friend Crystal Shelley said over the phone as I slid into my car.

She didn’t say that to complain. After all, she and her family enjoy an exceptional life. Yet, her point was that such has not always been her experience.

“My father has owned several businesses over the years,” she continued. “There were times when his businesses did well and there were times when they struggled.”

She remembers Christmas celebrations at home when they didn’t receive any gifts. It was because her father made sure all of his employees were paid and received their annual holiday bonuses. She said she didn’t mind those occasions because she knew her father was doing all he could do to love and care for them. Then, she spoke of the joy they had during a time when their business was very successful.

“We were overjoyed when my father took us to our new dream home. We had an amazing life there until the economy collapsed. Then, I watched my father cry as he locked the front door of that house as we all walked away, sorrowing at our loss.”

Yet, while discouraged, her father never gave up. He continued to work to provide for his family. And, a few years later he discovered an opportunity to purchase a business he had experience in. He seized the opportunity and moved his family to the other end of the state and started over. Now they were celebrating another ending.

“He just sold his business!” She said gleefully. “He’s going to retire now. Well, he says he is, but I know he’s going to be starting a small, part time business, just to keep doing what he loves. This time he’s doing it because he wants to, not because he needs to.”

She went on to tell me how proud she is of her father and mother and how she cried tears of joy on the day he called to tell her he had successfully sold his business. 

“I have the best parents in the world,” she confided.

She communicated this tribute just after I had left a meeting at a children’s shelter and had accepted her call, upon sliding into my car, while parked in the shelter’s parking lot. On the way back to my car I walked past a monument which was prominently displayed near the building’s entrance. The words on display read, “The biggest question I had as a child was, ‘how would I leave my mark on the world?’”

I sat and stared at those words as Crystal delighted me with her story. And, I marveled at the telling, because it was a verbal confirmation of the steel monument within my gaze. How can you and I answer childhood’s biggest question and leave our mark on the world? 

Crystal’s answer: Love those around you, never quit trying and celebrate, with gratitude, at your good fortune when it arrives.

Watch a current segment of my television show on American Dream TV:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VrtKwVnGHVODrj4B6cP5IbPCjEJfM5NZ/view?usp=drive_link